The latest in an ever-growing line of disappointments from the Discovery Channel took place Sunday night as they kicked off the yearly Shark Week. The big event was Megalodon: The Monster Shark That Lives. The “documentary” was supposed to reveal evidence that the long-extinct creature was still out there in the oceans. They had “scientists”, on an “expedition”, “eye-witness accounts”, “photographic evidence”… If you are wondering about my sudden penchant for putting things in quotes, it’s because every last bit of this thing was fiction. There was no sunken boat. No whale bitten in half. The scientist was an actor. Etc.. etc… etc… There’s a great open letter to Discovery by Christie Wilcox at Discover Magazine’s website that breaks it all down.

And that’s either sad, or infuriating, depending on how you look at it. Even more so if you take a hop over to the Discovery Corporate page and check out the description of what the Discovery Channel is intended (or claims) to be.

Discovery Channel, one of the most widely distributed cable networks in the U.S., is dedicated to creating the highest quality non-fiction content that informs and entertains its consumers about the world in all its wonder, diversity and amazement.

Quality non-fiction they say. In all seriousness, Megalodon was just slightly less fictitious than Sharknado. It’s so absurd at its core that my ridiculous image opening this article could have been used as ‘proof’ that giant sharks are roaming the Seattle waterfront. And when you add it to the sad likes of Amish Mafia, Devil’s Ride, and Saint Hoods it doesn’t paint a very nice picture of how far the channel has fallen from its original vision.